About

We (author Angela Bushman and illustrator Asako Nakauchi) plan to publish a very special children's book to celebrate our children's fathers, fathers and babies, and parenting and families in general.

Background

Angela's children’s father was one of a growing number of stay-at-home dads, who are entirely underserved in the children’s literature market. She wrote this book in response to a lack of children's books that show the father in the caregiver role. This may be the only book that serves this niche!

That said, the book is is not exclusive to stay-at-home fathers -- it's about every baby and father involved in the day-to-day care of an infant.

Concept

My Daddy Told Me features playful dialogue from Baby's perspective and a series of first-year milestones. In this picture book, Baby's relationship with Daddy is highlighted in normal, everyday interactions.

When I was born, my daddy said, "You're one of us all right. And you're beautiful!"

The story is perfectly suited for reading to an infant or toddler, and appeals to pre-school age children, as well, as they reminisce about "when they were little."

On the day I first smiled, my daddy told me, "Look at you! You're smiling for the very first time...and you don't have any teeth!"

Construction

My Daddy Told Me is written for a standard 32-page picture book format and will feature playful dialgoue and first-year milestones laid out in a 9" x 8" hard cover book. Asako has drafted several character sketches (see Update 1) and will complete the illustrations by August 15, 2011. Then we'll obtain our copyrights, work with a professional publishing company to help with layout and print 1,000 hard cover copies of the book.

What your funding will do

We're asking for $8,000 to cover the cost of copyrights, professional layout assistance, ISBN, and printing of 1,000 copies of the book, which we're excited to share with you and the world. We plan to donate books to local libraries, schools and nonprofit organizations. If we exceed our funding goal, we'll explore producing an interactive ebook.

Future plans

Finally, if this story and these characters find an audience, we'll continue to write and create more books, characters and other items together!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $50 or more
About $50

We'll send you a hard-cover, professionally bound copy of the book, My Daddy Told Me, autographed by both the artist and illustrator -- with your name listed as a supporter on the back of the dust jacket. And our eternal, heartfelt gratitude!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

We'll send you an invitation to our book's launch party in Minneapolis, a hard-cover, professionally bound copy of the book, My Daddy Told Me, autographed by both the artist and illustrator -- with your name listed as a supporter on the back of the dust jacket. And our eternal, heartfelt gratitude!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $150 or more
About $150

We'll send you an autographed, printed reproduction of original artwork from the book, an invitation to our book's launch party in Minneapolis, a hard-cover, professionally bound copy of the book, My Daddy Told Me, autographed by both the artist and illustrator. And our eternal, heartfelt gratitude!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $300 or more
About $300

We'll send you original artwork from the book signed by the illustrator (not framed), an invitation to our book's launch party in Minneapolis, a hard-cover, professionally bound copy of the book, My Daddy Told Me, autographed by both the artist and illustrator. And our heartfelt gratitude!